[App Review] Diwali Doodle Rocket

It’s festive season and you have the sudden urge to pull out your smartphone and take a five minute break from watching fireworks light up the evening sky. You’re probably thinking Temple Run – not this time! Delhi based startup, Bitnomix Labs has just the right one for you.

Diwali Doodle Rocket lets you control a pyrotechnic firework most commonly known as a ‘rocket’ and guide it through the skyline while avoiding obstacles such as clouds, space shuttles and spaceships. The sky is filled with ‘smiling’ stars that you can collect to boost your score. Once you get going, you fly past certain Indian monuments. Gaze at them long enough and you crash into the nearest cloud or spaceship! Scores are based on the number of stars collected and the distance traversed. The score for each run adds up to the total player score. You can use your scores to unlock a variety of funky rockets.

Gameplay

You start with your rocket in the air, gravity doing its job pulling it down towards the ground. You must keep your rocket between the top and the base of the view. A gentle tap on the screen fires the thrusters and gives the rocket a slight lift. A longer you press, the greater the thrust, the higher your rocket goes. Navigating the obstacles, especially the clouds, can be a tad difficult sometimes, especially for first timers. However, the physics is better than a lot of games that fall in this category.

The soundtrack adds to the festive feel with firecrackers bursting in the background. The developers recommend earphones – We recommend them too!

Look & Feel

This is one aspect of the game that requires some re-thinking. While, the crumpled notepad style graphics does look funky, the game reminds me a lot of the android app Paper Camera. A refined and polished look with flat colours and elements ( can still be doodle-like), coupled with the parallax scrolling (which has been implemented) would help a lot in giving this game a premium feel.

Final Thoughts

Diwali Doodle Rocket is a refreshing addition to the genre of festival games with a brand new concept and addictive gameplay. The developers have done a good job overall. One of the guys who tried the game out commented, “It doesn’t look unfinished.”

The game is in Android only for now. With an iOS version of the game on its way, what the game requires are a couple of improvements in the visual and gameplay elements.

Looking for some Diwali aftershocks? Try out Diwali Doodle Rockethere.

Bitnomix Labs is a Delhi based startup and is founded by two brothers –Ishaan Bhola is final year student of B.Arch at IIT Roorkee and loves to take story-centered- design approach for both coding and design. Vibhu Bhola has worked for several years as a software engineer at a major IT company and loves to hack around with code in his free time.